6 May 2015 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Elections for the Kent Association of Headteachers

There will be elections in June 2015 to appoint new members of the Kent Association of Headteachers Area Boards, who will serve from September 2015 to August 2017.  The new Boards will build on the successes of the current Boards whose members are approaching the end of their terms of office.

In the election any Headteacher of a Primary or Secondary school can be a candidate to represent schools in the same phase in his or her District.  All Headteachers of Primary and Secondary schools are entitled to vote in the process to appoint their representative(s). There are separate mechanisms for the appointment of Special school and PRU representatives.

If you would like to be a candidate in the election, having read the information below, please send your interest to Sharon Batchelor, Business Support Officer to the KAH (Sharon.Batchelor@kent.gov.uk) by 22 May 2015, giving your name, school and District.

Should you wish to discuss the work of the Area Boards, before deciding whether or not to seek election, please contact the current Chair for your Area:

North:
Garry Ratcliffe, Executive Head of Oakfield Community Primary School and Temple Hill Community Primary School
garry.ratcliffe@oakfield.kent.sch.uk

South:
Sally Lees, Principal of Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre
s.lees@homewood.kent.sch.uk

East:
Jane Robinson, Headteacher of Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School
jrobinson@langton.kent.sch.uk

West:
John Harrison, Headteacher of Tunbridge Wells Boys' Grammar School
jharrison@twgsboys.kent.sch.uk

The KAH aims to promote an effective partnership between all schools and the Local Authority in working towards the very best educational provision in Kent, by delivering a coherent school improvement strategy based on a self-improving school to school support system.

In particular KAH has worked hard to support the development of school collaborative partnerships, and wider networks and alliances, that support improvement involving a range of partners including Teaching School Alliances, the Local Authority and Academy Trusts. There has been a clear focus on developing a network of excellence such that all Kent schools are able to achieve good and outstanding performance in Ofsted Inspections. KAH also serves to link with external agencies, partners and national bodies and be the voice for Kent schools. It is supported by funding through the Local Authority to support school collaborations.

The Area Boards

Each Area Board meets six times per year, with the following membership:

• two Headteachers of Primary schools in each District;
• one Headteacher of a Secondary school in each District;
• the Headteacher of one Special school in the area;
• the Headteacher of one Pupil Referral Unit in the area;
• a representative of each Teaching Alliance in the area;
• the Area Education Officer;
• the Area's Senior Primary and Secondary Improvement Advisers.

The Area Board elects annually, from the Headteacher members, a Chair who will serve as one of the Area Board's representatives on the KAH Executive Committee.  The Board also appoints (from a phase other than that of the Chair) a second representative to serve on the Executive Committee. The KAH Executive also elects a Chair, who is currently Pam Jones, Headteacher at Ifield School in Gravesham.

I hope you will show interest in serving on your Area Board, to continue the good work so far in developing school to school support in Kent.

Update on the Launch of a New National Post 16 Database in September 2015 

This explains what the Department for Education's (DfE) new national database will include, how this will impact on kentchoices4u and what KCC will do to assist schools and colleges to comply, without creating additional work for them.

The Kent Area Prospectus and Common Application Process in 2015-16 will be in its ninth year of supporting young people and parents or carers to make important post 16 decisions.  During this time, the kentchoices4u website has grown to become central to the drive to increase participation to age 18 and reduce the number of NEETs in Kent.  Each year over 13,000 Year 11 students access their accounts on the website to carry out post 16 research, with the majority then going on to apply to Kent schools and colleges online.

The kentchoices4u website provides access to information on post 16 options at schools, colleges, apprenticeship vacancies, CEIAG resources, volunteering opportunities, training provider contacts and links to local labour market information and opportunities.  The website's online application function also gives an early indication of young people at risk of becoming NEET and streamlines the work required by schools to support the statutory duty to track young people to age 18.

The importance of having such a key local resource has been recognised by the DfE who visited Kent in 2014 to prepare for the launch of a National Post 16 Database in September 2015. Where an area, like Kent, already has a local Area Prospectus, the national database will not cut across it, leaving kentchoices4u to continue to be the primary resource for post 16 research and applications.  In brief, the purpose of the National Database is to ensure that young people in other areas of the country have the same level of information that young people and their parents and carers enjoy in Kent. 

Providers in areas like Kent with a local Area Prospectus and Common Application Process will still be required to supply data for the national database to complete the resource, but we, through our supplier UCAS, will be able to pass data to the DfE on behalf of schools, so that schools and colleges will only need to continue to give this information once to KCC through the usual routes.

We will also continue with our well used Common Application Process, write to all Year 11 students and their parents and carers, with their access codes and support schools and colleges to use the website.  In short, the National Post 16 Database will be in its infancy in September 2015 and will not deflect our attention away from providing this vital resource through kentchoices4u.

Please see the most up to date information from the gov.uk website.

If you would like to find out more about either the National Database or kentchoices4u please contact rob.williamson@kent.gov.uk.

Patrick Leeson
Corporate Director, Education and Young People's Services